Kyle Hayes: Every team that wins an All-Ireland has a target on their backs

Kyle Hayes of Limerick in action against Jack Fagan of Waterford during last year's All-Ireland final. Picture: Sportsfile

Limerick star Kyle Hayes isn’t fazed by his side’s slow start to the 2021 season.

The All-Ireland champions are still looking for a first competitive win of the year — they drew with Tipperary in their first league game and subsequently lost to Galway and Waterford.

Hayes says “the vibe in the camp is good”, however.

“It’s the same team spirit as last year, there’s a lot of hard work going on in the background,” says Hayes.

“It’s a process. That’s been our motto over the last few years, since John [Kiely, manager] and Paul [Kinnerk, coach] have come in. Everything’s a process.

“We’re building on each performance as a team, which is something I think we’re doing, and all you can look for.

“Any outside influences you try to keep outside, and I think the vibe in the camp is good.”

Part of maintaining the good vibes is dealing with pressure.

“You learn as you go on, and even in a short enough career so far for myself, you do learn to deal with things.

“Things in the media you might see or hear — you might not even look at those outlets anymore, or if someone even starts talking to you about something, you might change the subject.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with it, and it’s up to yourself as an individual to find that way of dealing with it.

The truncated preparation time for this season has been notable for the big man from Kildimo-Pallaskenry.

“The one thing that stands out for me is the short preseason we’ve had this year,” he says.

“It’s not as long as last year’s, even. Usually you’d have five or six months of a pre-season — that’s working back from the first championship game — and it’s hard to adapt to that sometimes, but it’s up to the team and management to get that right and to drive it on. That’s why sometimes you see a team have a slow start.

“But for now, it’s four weeks to the championship, so there isn’t much time to waste.

“I find it enjoyable [the current situation], a mix of training and matches is probably what every player wants. If you’re training for a prolonged period without matches, it can be difficult, and things can become a bit stale.

“But if you have matches and training, then for me, that’s the best mix.”

Limerick are acknowledged as the market leaders in senior inter-county hurling. Is Hayes conscious of having a target on his back when they take the field?

“It’s the same for every team coming off an All-Ireland win, they all have a target on their backs,” he says. “It’s something we didn’t deal with properly in 2019 as much as we would have liked.

But the team was a bit younger then, and we’ve matured since. It’s two years down the line and the team is older, but in a good way — we’ve introduced some young guys, but maturity will come into it.

“[The biggest lesson was] not getting carried away. As everyone knows, it was 45 years since Limerick had won the All-Ireland [in 2018], so it was a big deal, and very hard to escape anywhere you went in Limerick.

“It’s different this year. It’s not about people getting used to it, but there’s been more success in Limerick, so people are dealing with it a bit better, and not making a big deal out of it with the players.”

There has been a big deal about refereeing and physicality in the early rounds of the league, however.

“It’s been difficult for all teams,” says Hayes.

“Hurling is such a physical sport that when certain things get pulled up, it can be frustrating. It’s a learning process for us and for referees as well — they’ve had a longer lay-off than us. At least we had a three-week preseason, while some referees mightn’t have had a game in five or six months.

“It’s important to recognise their point of view too, and I’ve noticed that in the last two or three games the refereeing has become better. We all want to keep the game exciting.”

The Cork-Limerick championship clash in July is a test event for the return of spectators.

Hayes says he is excited by the prospect.

“It’s 5,000 (spectators). The capacity in the Gaelic Grounds is near enough to 50,000, so in a way it’s not going to be a lot, but in another way it’ll make a massive difference.

It’s been over a year since anyone has really been at a game and while we said we’d adapt to the changes as they came through, and we have, it’ll be interesting to see the difference when the crowds come back.

“Even on a communication basis, you can hear much more in an empty stadium, so we might have to get used to having more hand signals.”

- Kyle Hayes was speaking at RTÉ’s Summer of Sport launch